Best Value Appointee

Employment type: Part time, limited term. 150 days p.a. maximum.

Length of term: Dependent upon role

Team: N/A

Location: Hybrid, locations dependent upon need.

Seniority: High

Salary: Up to £1200 per day

Closing date: 14th March 2025

Overview:

Councils are at the heart of our democracy, supporting local communities and delivering essential services. We know that some are struggling, and we’re doing all that we can to protect them. We want to take a collaborative and a constructive approach to reset our relationship with local government and rebuild its foundations. We will work with every council that needs it to put in place clear, deliverable plans to address issues and protect local taxpayers.

That means working directly with a small number of local authorities in difficulty to provide support, advice, challenge and expertise so they can recover, meet their statutory responsibilities and deliver the services their communities deserve. We expect the highest standards of local government – with central government playing its part as a responsible steward. Local councils must be fit, legal and decent.

The Secretary of State can make appointments under the Local Government Act 1999, calling on experts and those with a proven track record of collaboration and service delivery in challenging circumstances to help councils in their recovery.

For further information please see the Job Descriptions below.

Best Value Appointees to interventions (Commissioners, Panel Members, Envoys)

· Provide regular advice, guidance and support to the Council in developing and implementing its recovery plan.

· Work with the Council and the community to solve problems in partnership.

· Provide leadership and use your judgement to exercise any powers provided to you through Directions as and when necessary.

· Collaborate with the Council to develop and implement good local government practice drawing on your own expertise as well as other delivery partners and stakeholders.

· Be ready to challenge poor behaviour or reluctance where it is holding back the Council’s progress and take any action necessary to resolve such issues.

· Provide assurance to the Secretary of State on the Council’s progress in delivering this Plan through regular progress reports.

· Make recommendations to the Secretary of State as necessary on any matters relating to the intervention, including scope and duration of the Directions and appointments.

· Collaborate with and provide support to elected members and officers to address the Council’s challenges and to progress the Council’s recovery.

· Collaborate with a broad range of delivery partners and stakeholders, including other MHCLG appointees, and where relevant any Children’s Commissioner appointed by the Department for Education.

· Use your judgement and expertise to support the Council to deliver Best Value and continuous improvement across all its business and service areas.

Best Value Appointees to inspections (Inspectors and Reviewers)

· Prepare a robust independent report of the available evidence, that will subsequently be laid in Parliament, to enable the Secretary of State to make a holistic judgement of a Council’s compliance with their Best Value duty.

· Be curious and explore each of the Best Value themes in the ‘Statutory Guidance on Best Value Standards and Intervention’ in relation to the Council, drawing on your own experience and judgement.

· Evaluate the capacity and competence of the Council to make progress and deliver continuous and sustainable improvement.

· Work closely with others in the team, and within the framework of any statutory powers.

· Develop evidence-based recommendations for actions that are necessary for the Council to secure compliance with its Best Value duty, including whether the Secretary of State should intervene and, if so, what form the intervention should take.

Person specification:

Essential 

· Credibility, and extensive experience of senior leadership and excellence in the public, private or voluntary sector.

· Experience of successfully leading improvement activity and organisational change, bringing colleagues at all levels with you. 

· Thorough understanding of the requirements of a public sector organisation in serving the local community and how to deliver these requirements while championing good governance and risk management.

· Ability to collaborate with and influence a wide range of stakeholders, sufficient to lead and drive whole council transformation, with mutual respect and meaningful engagement, potentially from a low base.

· Ability to identify reasons for service failure and instigate the measures necessary to stabilise service delivery and implement improvement.

· An appreciation of and a willingness to demonstrate the Nolan Principles of Public Life and uphold the highest standards of local government.

Desirable

· Experience working as a Chief Executive or in executive director capacity in a Local Authority (including as a Deputy Chief Executive, Section 151 officer or Monitoring Officer) or a comparative role in the public, private or voluntary sector.

· Experience of working in difficult political environments and a thorough respect for democratic accountability.

· Experience of delivering the Best Value duty. 

· An in depth understanding of local government and the significant issues facing it. 

· We are also interested in those with political experience to play a role within an intervention setting. Please indicate on your application form if you are applying as a candidate from a political background.

Selection process

You will be asked to complete and upload an application form including details of your CV. The template for which can be found here - Best Value appointments: inspections and interventions - GOV.UK

Please ensure your name is clearly stated on the document.

The selection panel will be in contact to arrange interviews if you are successful at sift, with the expectation that these will take place during March and April. Interviews will be conducted remotely.

The equalities information you provide will not be used as part of the selection process.

Candidates should note that ‘due diligence’ will be carried out as part of the process if you are called to interview and will be shared with the Panel, and Ministers in the event of any future appointment. This will include searches on social media, blogs and/or other publicly available information. References may also be requested at the interview stage.

Please note: The time taken between interview and a final decision being made can sometimes take several months. Candidates who have been interviewed will be kept informed of progress. We expect to inform candidates in late spring 2025.

Due to the high volume of applications we may receive we will only provide feedback to candidates who reach the interview stage, and this will only be provided once the campaign has concluded.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

There may be instances where it is necessary to obtain clearance to a higher level – this will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Internal Fraud Database

The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned. The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to MHCLG as a participating government organisations. MHCLG then carry out the pre-employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented. For more information please see- Internal Fraud Register

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this recruitment campaign, please feel free to email us at: stewardshiprecruitment@communities.gov.uk